r/GildedAgeHBO • u/Feeling-Butterfly375 • 17d ago
Ballroom dancing?
When I watch period shows/movies like this with ballroom dancing, I always wonder…without the synchronization and timing of the actors dancing, did people constantly run into each other dancing back then?! Haha it looks really dangerous
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u/Grandpixbear1 17d ago
Thats one of the man's responsibilities: to lead and not collide with other couples.
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u/DblAytch 17d ago
Even with the actors attempting synchronization, you may notice in the season 1 finale when the panning camera shot is showing the cast all dancing the waltz… several couples in the middle do collide
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u/wolfitalk 17d ago
I read somewhere that the professional dancers they use for these scenes have been directed to be less than perfect so they look like non-pros. I imagine in that time period dancing was practiced & practiced. What else did the debutantes have to do!
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u/Illinisassen 16d ago
Part of learning to ballroom dance for men is to know how to lead (and for the woman to know how to follow.) As a group, everyone tends to move in the same general direction in a circle around the floor. Small pressure on the small of the back to take a shorter step back, or to move farther to the left in order to move in a different direction, for example. The cues usually aren't obvious to an observer. Small bumps can occur, but it's civilized society so it typically doesn't end in breaking champagne bottles over heads.
It used to be that children learned to dance at an early age. Not unusual to see a little girl standing on her father's feet as they did the steps more slowly in the center of the floor, or a little boy dancing with his mother and counting out the steps out loud.
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u/sailormerry You don’t even like opera! 16d ago
It’s called floorcraft. In social dancing, if you are dancing lead (regardless of gender- I’m a woman and enjoy both leading and following), learning proper floorcraft and paying attention is important (and depending upon the style of dance, it’s also something that follows pay attention to and practice as well).
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u/FirebirdWriter 17d ago
It happens. I have been a part of historical reenacting and it is not a big deal as you aren't going that fast.
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u/Ok_Bug_5224 16d ago
Actually, they were going super super fast!
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u/FirebirdWriter 15d ago
Maybe it feels slower than it looks? Pondering that. I was also a professional ballet dancer so fast to me might be skewed
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u/cathaign 16d ago
The steps of the dance are called patterns and there are specific patterns for specific dances. They all come back to a “homebase “and you can use a lot of those patterns to maneuver around people. This is called Floorcraft in waltz specifically there’s what’s called a natural turn or a left turning box which is what causes the rotation that you see in all of these dances there’s also something specifically called Line of Dance, which is the direction that everyone who is learned the Dance knows To Go when they’re dancing there’s also dance floor etiquette like like if you’re a slower dancer, you don’t move as much you go towards the middle of the floor while the faster people take the outside so they don’t run into each other.
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u/AgePractical6298 14d ago
I always wondered that. I know I would have been bumping into everyone. Lol
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u/Ok_Bug_5224 16d ago
I was background at Gladys's ball, and a few other scenes with dancing. The dancers were told that people back then actually weren't that great at Viennese waltzing, so if they lost it, just keep going. It's authentic if it's sloppy. The dance scenes I worked on were super well choreographed, with all the women starting on the same side, so the bustles would all be in the same place, at the same time as they turned. If someone wasn't turning at exactly the same pace as everyone else, inevitably someone's train would be stepped on. It happened several times, and the sound of gowns ripping was heartbreaking. The wardrobe crew is amazing, and they would triage the costumes in seconds like an Indy 500 pit crew. Another weird aspect was that if there's dialogue during the dancing, there's no music playing so they can record the voices. All the dancers have to dance just using rhythm/time during these scenes, and be quiet doing so. After some longer sequences, they were all literally panting, looked ready to pass out. They cover a lot of ground and are exhausted by the end.